Semiconductors are an integral part of the broadband communication industry. Products like integrated circuits, wireless networks, cable modems are in huge demand today because of the rising efficient in existing technology and making it accessible to every corner of the world.
Pioneering in the world of communication engineering, Henry Samueli along with Henry Nicholas co-founded Broadcom Corporation in 1991. The company was built mainly to produce semiconductors and products that can contribute to today’s communication system.
The company came under the acquisition of Avago Technologies in 2016 and is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. Headquartered in Irvine, California; Broadcom has made more than twenty big acquisitions till date and listed as Gartner’s Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors.
Henry Samueli
Samueli’s Jewish parents moved to the United States with nothing but lucky enough to survive in the Nazi terror land. The family ran a liquor store in Los Angeles and this is where Samueli grew up. He went to Bancroft Junior High School followed by Fairfax High School.
His great interest in electronics started growing inside him since he was a child and he built a radio all by himself in junior school. He went to UCLA School of Engineering to complete his graduation and passed with all the three successive degrees from Bachelor’s to PhD from this very place.
Samueli studied Electrical Engineering and after completing his PhD he joined UCLA as a professor. This is where he met Henry Nicholas who was a PhD scholar at UCLA. Apart from being an engineer, Samueli is also a great philanthropist who is the founding director of the Samueli Foundation, a non-profit organization. Recently, Samueli has donated $100 million for the development of UCLA.
Henry Nicholas
Nicholas was born to a prosperous family in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was four years old, his parents got divorced and he moved to Los Angeles, California with his mother and sister. Nicholas did his junior years schooling from Malibu and later went to Santa Monica High School.
Nicholas pursued his degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and before that went to the United States Air Force Academy. Nicholas received his Master’s degree from UCLA as well and got admitted for the PhD program under Samueli.
After completing his PhD, Nicholas moved to Cerritos and joined PairGain Technologies as Director of Microelectronics. But he left the company soon and joined his business partner who was also his advisor to co-found Broadcom.
History of Broadcom
In the beginning, both Samueli and Nicholas invested $5,000 from their pocket to start this business. They didn’t have a proper workplace and temporarily worked at Nicholas’s beach house. It’s a good thing one of them was a bit richer. After a year of rigorous hard work, both of them were finally able to rent an office in Westwood.
This was Broadcom Corporation’s first office which was shifted to Irvine three years later. The company went public in 1998 and made a kick-off start with serving more than fifteen countries around the world.
In 2009, the company was listed in the Fortune 500 and by this time Broadcom hired more than 11,000 employers. At the end of 2013, the company’s annual revenue summed up to a massive figure of $8.01 billion with its ranking coming down to 327 in Fortune 500.
Acquisitions
Broadcom has got a never-ending list of acquisitions starting from 1999. The company mainly bought other small semiconductor companies and networking companies like Maverick Networks, Epigram, Altocom, BlueSteel Networks and many more. Some biggest acquisitions before the company was sold were in 2000 and 2011. The company bought Silicon Spice and NetLogic Microsystems for $1 billion and $3.7 billion respectively.
End of an Era
The company which achieved a great deal of success for more than two decades came under the acquisition of Avago Technologies in 2015. The company was sold for $37 billion with Samueli becoming the CTO of the newly merged company and Nicholas playing the role of strategic advisor. After all the legal works were completed by February 2016, Cypress Semiconductor bought Broadcom’s entire IoT sector in May 2016. The acquisition was made for $550 million.
It was estimated that after the merging, Broadcom Inc. (present parent company) would have an estimated market value of $77 billion.
Broadcom Inc
The company was formerly known as Avago Technologies, that is, from 1961. Tan Hock Eng is the current CEO of the company with more than 15,000 employers to date. According to the records of 2018, the company’s annual revenue is $20.84 billion.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more